This has an 83% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes. Rightly so. Labeling its era merely "mid 1980s" sells the movie short. NYC really had descended into being the ultimate gritty tough noir city of the western world right then. This was a one-of-a-kind watershed time.
There were street-gangs still, muggings, graffiti on subway trains, a decadent and dangerous Times Square, hookers easy to spot in that area. There was a druggie nest right on 42nd Street (Bryant Park). Half the play-acting theaters were dark, some storefronts were abandoned or trashed, Soho was an urban desert avoided by almost all, and the city (under a well-meaning but ineffective Mayor Koch) was close to broke. Sagas not so different to this movie's played out for sure, and the occasional Susans and Robertas were quite real.
When exactly did NYC bounce back into a pussycat of a place, low-crime, attracting a million tourists a week? Not so long after this film. From Wikipedia this hammered home that NYC was back on the rise: "Disney Theatrical Productions signed a 49-year revenue-based lease for the (New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street) in May 1995". Soho and Harlem became places to walk, as did Central Park with a camera not hidden under a coat. The theaters, museums and restaurants in recent years bulged, and Bryant Park is a lunchtime mecca now. Maybe 15 years ago the NY Times printed a half-serious editorial lamenting the loss of NYC's gritty edge.
This movie shows us that there was a funny colorful side of NYC even when it was nearly down for good. Roberta finds herself someone with heart and she moves, against the prevailing flow, from the burbs to Manhattan. Millions of others soon chose to do so too. Perhaps this nice movie helped in a small way. Keys of the city to the director, Madonna, Aidan Quinn, and Rosanna Arquette?!
There were street-gangs still, muggings, graffiti on subway trains, a decadent and dangerous Times Square, hookers easy to spot in that area. There was a druggie nest right on 42nd Street (Bryant Park). Half the play-acting theaters were dark, some storefronts were abandoned or trashed, Soho was an urban desert avoided by almost all, and the city (under a well-meaning but ineffective Mayor Koch) was close to broke. Sagas not so different to this movie's played out for sure, and the occasional Susans and Robertas were quite real.
When exactly did NYC bounce back into a pussycat of a place, low-crime, attracting a million tourists a week? Not so long after this film. From Wikipedia this hammered home that NYC was back on the rise: "Disney Theatrical Productions signed a 49-year revenue-based lease for the (New Amsterdam Theater on 42nd Street) in May 1995". Soho and Harlem became places to walk, as did Central Park with a camera not hidden under a coat. The theaters, museums and restaurants in recent years bulged, and Bryant Park is a lunchtime mecca now. Maybe 15 years ago the NY Times printed a half-serious editorial lamenting the loss of NYC's gritty edge.
This movie shows us that there was a funny colorful side of NYC even when it was nearly down for good. Roberta finds herself someone with heart and she moves, against the prevailing flow, from the burbs to Manhattan. Millions of others soon chose to do so too. Perhaps this nice movie helped in a small way. Keys of the city to the director, Madonna, Aidan Quinn, and Rosanna Arquette?!
